ivory and gold

KEITH SCOTT was sitting in a car, reading. He was shot by a police officer, who was not charged.

ATATIANA JEFFERSON was looking out her window, and was shot by a police officer, who is still under indictment for murder.

JONATHAN FERRELL was asking for help after an auto accident. He was shot twelve times by police, case ended in mistrial.

JORDAN EDWARDS was riding in a car and was shot in the back of the head by a police officer, who was found guilty of murder.

STEPHON CLARK was holding a cell phone, and was shot 8 times, 6 in the back. The officers were not charged.

AMADOU DIALLO while taking out his wallet, 41 shots were fired by four different officers. They were all acquitted.

RENISHA MCBRIDE after an auto accident, she knocked on someone’s door for help. The homeowner was found guilty of second-degree murder.

TAMIR RICE was playing with a toy gun, and was shot by police officer arriving on scene. Officer was not charged.

SEAN BELL was hosting a bachelor party. 50 rounds were fired by police officers who were found not guilty of charges.

WALTER SCOTT was pulled over for brake lights, and was shot in the back by a police officer who pleaded guilty to civil rights violations.

PHILANDO CASTILE was pulled over and told officer he had a legally registered weapon in car. Officer acquitted of all charges.

AIYANA JONES was sleeping and was accidentally shot by an officer in a raid on wrong apartment. Officer cleared of all charges.

TERRENCE CRUTCHER needed help when his vehicle broke down. Was shot by a police officer who was found not guilty of manslaughter.

ALTON STERLING was selling CDs, and was shot at close range while being arrested. No charges filed.

FREDDIE GRAY was beaten to death by officers while being transported in police van. All officers involved were acquitted.

JOHN CRAWFORD was shopping at WalMart, holding a BB gun that was on sale—police officer was not charged for his murder.

MICHAEL BROWN was shot twelve times by an officer, including in the back. No charges filed.

JORDAN DAVIS was killed because he was playing loud music. Shooter found guilty of first-degree murder.

SANDRA BLAND was pulled over for traffic ticket; was tasered and then arrested. Suspicious “suicide” while in jail. No charges.

BOTHAM JEAN was fatally shot in his home, which female officer ¿mistook for her own? (Which I’ll never understand.) Officer found guilty of murder.

OSCAR GRANT was handcuffed and placed face-down, officer then shot him in the back. Officer found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

COREY JONES was waiting by his car which was broken down, and was shot three times by police officer, who was found guilty of murder.

AHMAUD AUBREY was jogging. He was shot by two racist men who claimed they suspected him of burglaries. Both men were charged with murder and aggravated assault.

GEORGE FLOYD was suspected of alleged fraud. He handcuffed and pinned to the ground by an officer’s knee. He begged for mercy and he was ignored.

ERIC GARNER: Stopped for selling cigarettes on a nyc street and choked by a cop in broad daylight. Complications of the stress put on his throat by the hold caused his death; Openly said “I can’t breathe” several times and pretty much died while three other cops watched their compatriot kill a man. Eric was well known for just trying to sell goods as a side hustle and never actually hurt anybody.

The new Coronavirus known as COVID-19 is spreading in almost all the countries around the globe and the World Health Organization has characterized it as a pandemic on March 11th, 2020.

The word pandemic doesn’t mean ‘go panic’, tho. The WHO Director-General said “WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death. Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO’s assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn’t change what WHO is doing, and it doesn’t change what countries should do. We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus.”

What they’re asking is for you to be aware it is not a “simple flu” (despite in many cases the symptoms can be very similar), so that means you have to take some important precautions because it can (not will, but can) turn out to be deadly in certain cases.

Please read this page to get informed on the main things about this virus.

Be sure to learn:

What’s a Coronavirus and how COVID-19 fits the Coronaviruses family

Which are the symptoms that make you understand you’ve got the virus and you have to reach medical assistance asap

How can you prevent to get infected and protect yourself

How it spreads

And please:

Do not wait for the government of your country to call for an emergency status and a general quarantine, start being aware of the methods of protection and how to deal with the situation by yourself.

Do not panic as if it’s the deadliest of the viruses because it’s not and in actually the majority of cases people do not get complications.

The previous point doesn’t mean you have to ignore the spreading of the virus. This COVID-19 spreads easily and quickly (a sneeze from an infected person can infect all the other people around that get in touch with the little droplets that come out from the mouth). 

It is fundamental that you follow WHO’s advices for protection: 1) Wash your hands frequently (when you get home, when you touch stuff that’s been in contact with the outside of your house, do yourself a favor and wash them very frequently and for 20 seconds — you can sing the chorus Britney Spear’s “One More Time” or the “Happy Birthday” song). 2) Keep your hands clean also outside your house by using an alcohol-based hands-cleaning gel. Hands are one of the main vehicle for the virus to access our breathing system because they get in touch with nose, mouth and eyes very often. 3) Maintain social distance (at least 1 meter, or more) from other people, avoid kissing and hugging others and touching them. When someone coughs or sneezes they spray small liquid droplets from their nose or mouth which may contain virus. If you are too close, you can breathe in the droplets, including the COVID-19 virus if the person coughing has the disease. 4) Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with hands in any case and as much as you can. 5) Practice respiratory hygiene meaning do not cough/sneeze in the air but do it covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately in a trash can with a bag that needs to be closed. 6) If you have fever, high temperature, dry cough and difficulty breathing, seek medical care quickly but avoid staying in contact with other people as you may be infected and you could infect them too.

It is also fundamental that you start a “quarantine” anyway by yourself, meaning that you deliberately choose to stay safe and sound in your house and go out only for necessary/important stuff such as buying meds/food and when you go out you are very careful. It’s not said to scare people but since there’s high chance that the virus spreads quickly, it is safer to observe a period (some weeks/a month/until the pandemic starts slowing) of careful quarantine. 

Don’t panic and start thinking we’re at war and need all the supplies because supermarket/pharmacies won’t be affected by the virus and will be there when you’ll carefully get out of your house to go buy food. So don’t raid pharmacies/supermarkets, it’s pointless.

Stay in your home as much as you can, watch movies, make puzzles, catch up on tv shows, paint, sing, play games, do whatever in your house but go outside as less as you can.

Avoid any kind of crowded place, do not attend shows/parades with a lot of people because it’s the best way to get easily exposed.

If you’re a worker and you’re not allowed to be absent from workplace bring with you your hands-cleaning gel, stay away from people/maintain distance, do not cough/sneeze in the air. Of course there’ll be more chances to be infected but respecting those rules above will help you avoid it too. And when you get home, you need to wash your hands of course.

If you have relatives/friends that are older people and/or with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems, lung disease, diabetes, cancer, previously diagnosed breathing problems, or immunosuppressed people they are more likely to develop serious illness and get critical so tell them to stay safe in their houses and help them have less contact possible with the outside.

Only check verified/competent sources to keep up with the details of the virus spreading in the world, and avoid media that act like the world is ending. a) World Health Organization updates situation reports all over the world on a daily basis with a detailed report. You can also check the official health-care sites of your country for a more updated insight of the place where you live. b) Worldometer keeps track of numbers using verified sources.

Don’t be a stupid and think since you’re not in danger you can do what you want, cooperate with everyone and respect all the rules. China was the place where it all started but the rigid system and the precautions had a good effect and the numbers are talking. I’m aware not every country has China’s rigid system but I’m also faithful that there’s no need of imposing rules to people as these precautions are something that it’s in the interest of everyone and so everyone should be respecting them and not acting like they do not care.

Please, cooperate.

You’ll help the containment of the virus and you’ll help slowing the contagion that now it’s interesting almost the whole globe, in some parts more, in others less.

You’ll help hospitals that won’t be able to afford at some point taking in intensive care too many people in critical conditions and that will be a huge problem.

You’ll be safer by staying at home and if you’re one of the ones that aren’t at risk (young people, people with no particular diseases) but can still get infected/infect others even if they don’t show symptoms you’ll avoid infecting people that are at risk, instead.

yeah that’s totally fair! sirius is such an iconic hp character even to the gp (i think mainly bc we’re introduced to him in such a wild way and then his death comes as a massive shock) but he’s not actually featured in the books all that much- poa is “his” book but we only meet him in like the very last moments of it and we spent most of it thinking he was a crazy murderous death eater, and then we mostly see him again in ootp, wherein he’s depressed and frustrated and then dies pointlessly.

what we see of him is so intriguing to me precisely because every glimpse of sirius we get is of a ghost of a man, in a sense- everything about him relates to death and decay. he matters to the plot and to harry because of his connection to harry’s parents, who are dead; he’s spent a decade rotting in prison amongst the dying and the dead inside because of their deaths; he’s our proper introduction to the crumbling institution of pureblood wizards, trapped in an old empty house full of portraits of dead people with outdated views; his death is the first time harry loses someone who matters to him (and a parent figure at that). sirius, more than any other character, is trapped in the past- between james and lily’s murders and azkaban, he’s always written so the audience knows a massive part of him has died a long time ago. and yet at least imo he’s so different from a lot of characters like that- ofc he’s bitter and jaded and traumatised, but instead of being sad and apathetic and tragic, jkr makes sirius, well, cool- to harry and to us. he’s obviously very smart, and brave, and kind of an all round badass (he broke out of azkaban! he has a motorbike!) who talks to harry like an adult, knows a lot (and is willing to divulge a lot) about the order and death eaters, and has a sharp tongue & no fucks left to give. he’s also obviously a very flawed character- he makes little attempt to hide this, and narratively some of his “cool” traits are in fact his flaws- his recklessness, for one, and his stubborn pride, for another. sirius butts heads with an impressive roster of characters for someone with so little screen-time. to me all of this always begged the question: if this is sirius now, what was sirius like in his prime?

we kind of get some answers in the flashback scenes, obv (i will never forgive the movies for cutting those in DH)- sirius is, well, pretty much old sirius amplified by a thousand; low on angst and high on life. i love that the first things harry tells us about him are that 1/ he’s very hot and 2/ he could not be less interested in the people fawning over him because 3/ he only has eyes for james. in a sense what flashbacks give back to sirius is just james- what we have is sirius without james, hence the haunting. and suddenly all of sirius makes sense, i think- we know what he’s missing, and why he’s missing it. ofc we see all of the flashbacks from snape’s POV, which makes it all more negative and antagonistic, but it makes sense for young sirius to have been a cocky, permanently bored semi-asshole too charming to get in anyone’s bad books for long, clever and quick with his words and crueller than he needs to be. we see hints of that in him later, and we know the context.

so, to get back to the quote: the most rebellious, the most handsome and the most dangerous of the marauders? canon says yes. (he’s probably up there for most rebellious/most handsom/most generous chara in general, actually, with the disclaimer of some of the big bads in terms of danger, ofc.) sirius is a rebel both in attitude (leather jackets, motorbikes, sticking muggle posters all over his room to make a point) and in conviction (unlearning his family’s bigotry, spending his whole life fighting an oppressive movement); he’s also one of the characters jkr-via-harry spends the most time telling us is attractive, and as for dangerousness, well. sirius is dangerous, and he’s an interesting dangerous, because he teeters between acceptable canon dangerous (he’s a highly skilled duelist, he violently hates death eaters, and if he puts his mind to something he will accomplish it no matter the obstacle) and a more uncomfortable dangerousness, which both adults like molly or dumbledore and students like hermione take issue with (he feels little pity for anyone he considers in the wrong, cruelty comes easily to him, and if you cross him his vengeance borders on unhinged).

i think the quote kind of sums up why my nine-year old self was so drawn to sirius- he was a character that harry loved and looked up to tremendously, and he was so different from the kind of hero adult figures i’d seen before, always with a darkness to him, and cool in a way the other adults weren’t. since then, though, it’s the other things that have kept sirius near and dear to my heart- all the complex contradictions of his character, all the important things he teaches harry, the duality between the familial roots and traits he can’t shake off and his innate drive to do good and to make right. i’ve said so before, but the fact he’s the character that tells harry things like "we’ve all got both light and dark inside us. what matters is the part we choose to act on. that’s who we really are”, or “if you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals” is incredible to me. not only are they some of the core messages of the books, but they display such a worldly widsom, on behalf of a character you wouldn’t initially expect to have any such deep dumbledore-esque statements to make, which adds so much depth and nuance to sirius. the striking thing is that sirius is the one to tell harry (and us) these things, but they are battles he himself struggles with tremendously- he lives his life in black and white while thinking in grey, so to speak. it’s that kind of thing that has kept me coming back to sirius and will keep him close to my heart so long as i live- he feels so very human, both a walking greek tragedy and a cool uncle. not to mention he has the best roast of all seven books.